Talking Twinkies.... in 3D!!!!!!

Despicable Me is a cute movie, with a decent but overdone story about a cold-hearted villain who adopts 3 girls to steal a shrink ray, only for him to fall in love with the girls and turning him into a softie. Not exactly original or as well-done as other films of its ilk, but it had an ace up its sleeve. The minions. These barely understandable jaundiced creatures who are extremely clumsy stole the show and created a huge juggernaut of toys, video games, stickers, food items and et cetera. 3 years later, Despicable Me 2 released, was an even bigger hit but is a lesser movie, mainly due to a bland story (yet again) and a bigger emphasis on the minions, losing the focus of the main characters. 2015 saw the release of our main focus today, Minions, and with the main focus on the Minions and their origin story, will it be great or just a marketing scheme?
Apparently the minions have been around since the beginning of time, serving the most evil creatures and people of their time; everything from the mighty T-Rex to Napoleon, they have been subservient to evil only for them to muck it up and cause great ruin to their reigns. Banished to Antarctica, they finally find peace, but that slowly wanes to total boredom with no one to serve. 3 minions, Kevin, Stuart & Bob are sent to find a new master, where they end up in 1968 New York, during which they stay the night in a department store and watch some TV, unknowingly tuning into a secret signal advertising a villains convention in Orlando, Florida.
There they find their new master, Scarlett Overkill (Sandra Bullock, in her first villainous role) who has plans to steal the crown jewels of England so she can become the new Queen of England. The minions decide to steal the crown, with a minion accidentally becoming the new king. Scarlett plots to steal them for herself, and potentially rule the world. Will the minions stop Scarlett, will they save the world and will the minions hype machine ever stop? After grossing over $330 million here in the US and over a billion dollars worldwide, its gonna trudge on full steam ahead for the foreseeable future.
How did I feel about the film? Eh, its easily the worst Despicable Me film in the franchise, but its not all bad, just very mediocre in the greatest sense of the word. The biggest drawback is the main stars themselves, the minions. The minions work better as side characters due to their lack of character. Yes, they are cute and are unique, but beyond that, do they serve any purpose beyond laughs?
The story is bland, the characters are poorly developed, the humor isn't up to par (even for a kids film) and the whole affair screams "cash grab" with the smallest iota of effort brought forth for the movie. At least the animation is nice and colorful, the film moves along at a nice clip to prevent boredom, but this is not one worth owning without kids in the house. Even then, I recommend something else entirely better than Minions.
Luckily the PQ/AQ doesn't suffer the same fate as the movie as this is a high quality digital-to-digital transfer. The image is sharp, colorful and very detailed and is demo-worthy on a nice OLED TV. The 3D is just as detailed and colorful, with plenty of depth and some nice pop-out moments that add to the fun and is also worthy of demo-ing. The AQ is also worthy of praise, with the Dolby Atmos (7.1 Dolby TruHD core) that is excellent in every sense.
Extras are surprisingly limp though with the main feature is the 3 mini-Minion movies (Also in 3D disc, but only in 2D), which are cute but nothing more. Also included is a deleted scene, an interactive map that contains several featurettes and photos, a 5-part featurette about the making the movie, a Jingle Bells minion remix video and a preview for The Secret Life of Pets, all in HD. A DVD and a digital HD copy is also included, topping off a pretty but shallow set.
Overall, a mediocre movie with mediocre extras but excellent specs and terrific 3D, its worth it for demo purposes but nothing more.

No, I would not recommend this to a friend

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Kleeberg

Elite Member

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3

Doesn't it feel good to be bad?

Ba-Na-Na
In 2010, my then-girlfriend asked me to take her to see Despicable Me. I went happily, but I wasn't expecting a good movie. When it comes to animated movies, Pixar has an outstanding track record, but this was Illumination Entertainment's first movie produced. My expectations were low. The movie surprised me - it had heart, it had an antagonist you wanted to root for, and it had a ton of fun gags. Most of all, however, it had the Minions. These little yellow goons that absolutely stole the movie and made every scene they were a part of a riot. I remember walking out of the theater saying to my now wife, "I'd watch a movie just about the Minions.", and she happily agreed.
Well, nearly exactly 5 years from the release of Despicable Me comes Minions, our wish had (predictably) come true. Unfortunately, the result was disappointing.
In certain situations, too much of a good thing can make it...not so good. Take ice cream for example. Sure, it's amazing on a hot day or as an after dinner snack. Eat it for every meal, however, and it's going to get old. It reminds me of the early 90's, when Saturday Night Live decided they were going to take certain 5 minute sketches that were really funny and make full blown 90 minute movies out of them. After 5 minutes, those sketches had outworn their welcome and some of those movies are downright torture to watch (It's Pat? The Movie...I'm looking at you).
This isn't a good movie. The basic plot is that Minions have been on Earth for hundreds of years and are always looking for an evil boss to serve. They see a new up-and-coming boss named Scarlett Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock) and three of the Minions (Kevin, Stuart & Bob) start out on a quest to impress her enough to let them serve her.
This movie isn't terrible. It has a lot of good things here - the music is great (it's based in the early 70's), the animation looks great, and a lot of bits with the Minions are very funny (including one near the end that was so amazing featuring a snow globe). The little yellow things get into a lot of trouble and they're always very fun to watch. There's also a fantastic cameo at the end that I didn't see coming.
So what wasn't strong? Well, one of the main things that made the Despicable Me movies so amazing were really great villains. Scarlett Overkill is very underwritten and feels, for lack of a better word, lame. The climactic scene between the Minions and her just falls flat. The movie also goes for tired "eye-roll worthy" 70's jokes that are just so typical of the time, like the Minions coming up from a manhole as the Beatles walk across Abbey Road.
I feel a bit bad semi-trashing a kids movie. Maybe I'm just spoiled because I saw Inside Out the week before, which is an animated masterpiece. Maybe I was just expecting too much because of my love for the Minions. Kids are going to eat this movie up and if you like the Minions, you'll find something to enjoy here.
Final Score: C

I would recommend this to a friend

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doc8998

Verified Purchase

Elite Member

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3

Not a complete letdown, but...

Since the original Despicable Me, the scene stealers, the characters that have shined- and in many ways, been the bridge that made a children's movie enjoyable for both kids and adults, have been the gibberish-speaking, silly, 3 Stooges' schtick Minions with all their tomfoolery.
And while one has to question the Minions' self-awareness (or sense of self-preservation) with their antics, the bigger question might be how the creators lost sight of what made Despicable Me & DM2 so special.
That special quality- a movie made for kids, with universal slap-stick comedy with subtle hints at comedy for adults- cleverly hidden and left imperceptible to kids- is fairly lost here in what should be an amazing movie with the pill shaped mascots taking front & center.
Part of this is their own fault in making Gru (by all indications & hints) approximately 60 years old... With the Minions movie as a vehicle to the Minions meeting a young Gru, the setting takes place in 1960s England.
As a 44 year old (with a 2 year old) even I had a hard time being able to identify with the time period... It just wasn't personal enough. As I watched more obvious jokes come via the form of lava lamps, bell bottoms, the Monkees' theme song, and the famous Beatles' Abbey Road album cover, it felt like this was less a movie for today's children and more for producers, directors, etc inner children.
That's not to say children won't have any fun whatsoever, but what was a golden-yellow opportunity for the Minions to shine seems to have been lost in using this movie with the intention of appeasing too many adults; which is a shame, because, in my case, watching these movies with my son (who can watch Despicable Me 1 & 2 over & over, not so with Minions, where he surrenders before reaching the credits) is 3/4 of my enjoyment. Seeing him laugh and get into the movie is enjoyment enough... The previous movies sprinkled just enough in for me that they were favorites in the family genre. Minions seems to reverse that formula, expecting my son to be satisfied by seeing me enjoy humor he just won't get- it doesn't quite work that way.
It's hard to call Minions a full failure, as it does have scenes where it's more true to its roots, and keeps us all laughing. The problem is, they don't last nearly as long as the previous entries in the series.
With Despicable Me 3 on the way next year (and the end of Steve Carell's starring role as Gru) one can hope they recapture the magic, as well as hope that Gru isn't the crutch that's needed to continue the series. The world needs more Minions, but after the end of Carell's run, I hope the Minions movie isn't what is in store for any future iterations.

No, I would not recommend this to a friend

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VandyPrice

Verified Purchase

Member

Top 1000 Contributor

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

2

Twenty Minions Too Many

Minions, while inherently funny is wholly insignificant and unnecessary. For parents, Minions will be ol' reliable, for children who enjoyed the Despicable Me films it will be what they've been waiting for, but in terms of the actual quality of the product it couldn't be more vanilla sans for the ridiculous amounts of innuendo and subtext these guys are able to get away with due to literally half of the dialogue in the film being unintelligible. At the very least, I guess this flick might open up the idea to children that watching foreign films can't be all that bad as with those you are at least given subtitles whereas with Minions one has to count on interpretation of tone and inflection to elicit the intended comedy. The thing is though, and this became apparent in the Despicable Me sequel, is that it seems the folks behind these colorful fun fests are forgetting the minions are not only inherently funny, but inherently sidekicks despite the fact this film, their own feature, is about them seeking out a boss to serve. If the minions only goal in life is to function purely as sidekicks it only seems fitting they would remain in that role in any movie they might appear in, but when a movie only happens because the first was a surprise hit and the multiple sequels and spin-offs are concocted more because the iron is hot rather than there being any actual ideas of value you're going to run into such dilemmas. When the small Illumination Entertainment company scored a $540 million hit with the original film and it's sequel notched nearly a billion worldwide three years later you better believe they were going to milk this now-franchise for all it's worth. The minions instantly became cultural mainstays and so I understand why a feature of their own was ultimately inevitable, but it doesn't mean it makes any more sense. Get what I'm saying? They are sidekicks, they are good in small portions, but a little bit of these little yellow creatures goes a long way and in giving them a feature length film things have simply gone overboard as the weight of an entire narrative on the back of a character created purely for comic relief is too much for them to carry.

No, I would not recommend this to a friend

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stylez562

Verified Purchase

Elite Plus Member

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5

Minions are Pure Comedy!!!

My kids and I loved this movie. Minions is pure comedy. The movie is for children, but does have some appeal to adults. Its is certainly not meant to provide a special message to people. If you've see Despicable Me, you should already have figured that out. The trailers basically give an summary of the story line. A brief "history"/explanation of the minions is given in the beginning. The minions are in dismay without a leader. Three minions venture out to find someone, looking and looking. Since they are mischievous, its not someone well-mannered/polite they search for. It would not fit their personality. Once they find someone, the issue is still not fully solved. They must still "win" her over. Many mishaps take place, intentionally and not, leading to twists in the story line. The end is interesting. No point in going into details.
I give credit to the creativity. Illumination creates a movie were the main characters don't speak a given language, yet you can figure out what is being implied. (Their "language" a combo of gabbling, Spanish, French, and a little English. Go see the Despicable Me Extras if you don't believe me.) They were able to establish different personalities to the main 3 minion characters, yet keep the "minion" traits. Each primary and secondary character usually had their own style or uniqueness.

I would recommend this to a friend

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MovieLover

Verified Purchase

Elite Plus Member

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4

Fun movie for the whole family!

Minions is a great addition to the "Despicable Me" movies, filling in what happened to the Minions before they worked for Gru. It ends with the point in time when they first meet him.
While the movie is a lot of fun and the story is enjoyable, I myself rate it slightly below the Despicable Me movies. It didn't have quite as much feeling and depth that the others did, and when covering portions of the Minions past history, it felt quite rushed. Meanwhile, other parts seemed to drag a bit.
While I liked it, especially in 3D, I really thought they could have done a lot better with the story than they did.
Again, the 1st 2 movies with Gru were the best. (The potential of working a story of where the Minions came from, fell far short of what it could have been.) While disappointing, it was still worth seeing.

I would recommend this to a friend

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JOHNNYANGEL2010

Verified Purchase

Member

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5

MINIONS

Minions works just fine as a colorful diversion that will satisfy the kids. In fact, it'll probably delight them. But in a marketplace filled with terrific animated movies that both kids and adults can love for their own reasons, Minions leaves the older crowd in the cold, catering exclusively to those more enticed by sight and sound than story depth and purpose. That's not a bad thing, and there's a reason why the movie cleaned up at the box office: it knows its audience and delivers what its audience wants. It's just a bit more focused on its younger audience's immediate wants and needs rather than trying to expand into a multigenerational classic. Universal's Blu-ray release of Minions delivers high end video and audio. An fair amount of brief extras are included. Recommended.

I would recommend this to a friend

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TheTolsonator

Verified Purchase

Member

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5

The Minions are back!

Easily one of my favorite movies of the year, as well as my girlfriend (who this was purchased for). The movie goes back in time to show the origin of this goofy species of creatures and shows their successes and failures of finding the perfect boss...From pre-historic times and ancient Egypt, to the 1960's/70's follow Bob, Stuart and Kevin all over the world.
The movie comes with a digital copy that can be redeemed and watched on the go through a proprietary format or if you're savvy enough to make your own digital copy, you've got a DVD as well to make it happen.
Worth the purchase? Oh yeah. Hilarious movie to add to the collection and one that will be cherished for years to come.